Huawei Mate 10 release date, news and rumors

Update: A new look at the Huawei Mate 10 software shows that the company will be focusing on little improvements to the look and feel of Emotion UI.

The Huawei Mate 9 was one of the best large screen phones of 2016, offering great battery life, impressive internal power and a good snapper on the back of the handset.

Huawei will follow it up with the Mate 10 later this year, so we've collected all the news and rumors about the handset. You'll find that below, followed by a selection of the features we'd most like to see on the upcoming phablet.

The Mate 10 will probably have to compete with the Samsung Galaxy Note 8, Galaxy S8 Plus, iPhone 8 Plus and many other big name handsets, so hopefully some of this comes true, to make it worth holding out until the end of the year to upgrade your phone.

Cut to the chase

What is it? The next large screen phone from Huawei
When is it out? Late 2017, possibly October
What will it cost? A high price

Huawei Mate 10 release date and price

Key points:

The Huawei Mate 10 will launch this year
Expected to launch on October 16, plus you can probably buy it soon after
Price wise, it's going to be expensive

Huawei's Mate 9 was quite a bit more expensive than the Mate 8, so with the price already being very high we don't expect Huawei will put the price up much for the Mate 10.

The Mate 9 launched at $599.99 (£579, AU$999), so we'd expect a similar price for the Mate 10 when the it launches later this year.

As for a Huawei Mate 10 release date, one source pegs it at October 2017, which would be less than a year after the Mate 9, as that launched in November 2016.

A Polish website called TableTowo is reporting the Mate 10 will specifically launch on October 16 at an event in Munich.

Even if that date doesn't come to fruition, we know it will arrive in the coming months as Huawei CEO Richard Yu revealed details about the firm's upcoming phablet in an interview with Bloomberg.

One source has also said the codename for the Huawei Mate 10 is Marcel, while a higher end Mate 10 Pro has the name of Blanc.

Huawei Mate 10 design and specs

A bezel-less, 6-inch, 2:1 display
A 2,160 x 1,080 resolution
A dual-lens front-facing camera with 3D face scanning skills

The latest Huawei Mate 10 information comes courtesy of a series of leaked renders, showing a big phone with a fingerprint scanner below the screen on the front, a glass back and a dual-lens rear camera jutting out.

The source of the images adds that the Mate 10 will have a 5.9-inch display and dimensions of 150.2 x 77.5 x 8.4mm, which would make it marginally smaller than the Huawei Mate 9.

These images are at odds with one of the most prolific Mate 10 rumors, which suggests the company is planning to include a bezel-free display on its next phablet device.

UberGizmo has reported that Chinese sources claim the phone will come with the now commonly used screen design, seen on competitors like the Galaxy S8 and LG G6 as well as the rumored iPhone 8.

Elsewhere, we've heard that it will be a 6-inch 2,160 x 1,080 display with a 2:1 aspect ratio. That would make it long and narrow, again like key rivals.

What we do know for sure about the Huawei Mate 10 display is that it will have very slender bezels, after CEO Richard Yu said the phone will have a large screen to bezel ratio.

The same source claims the Mate 10 may have an iris scanner, and will have 3D facial recognition skills, which will apparently make it better at augmenting reality.

Huawei Mate 10 camera

That adds up with talk on an unconfirmed Weibo thread that hinted at a dual-camera system for the front of the Mate 10, but there's no confirmation on who posted the rumors, so it may turn out to all be false.

Yu has also said that Huawei will improve camera quality for the Mate 10, while also providing a longer lasting, and faster charging battery in the phone.

But Huawei is putting a lot of money into its dual-camera tech made in partnership with Leica, so it makes sense that the firm will look to upgrade the front camera.

Huawei may also bring its upgraded dual rear camera system from the Huawei P10 to the Mate 10.

Huawei Mate 10 OS and power

It's also expected Huawei will debut it's long-awaited Kirin 970 chipset on the phone. The Mate 9 came with the latest processing tech at the time - the Kirin 960 - so it would make sense if Huawei decides to upgrade the processor on the Mate 10 to what will likely also be seen on the Huawei P11.

That makes sense, as Yu also revealed that the Mate 10 will be more powerful than the new iPhone - so expect it to be crammed full of grunt.

Huawei has also shown us a little hint of what the software will look like on the Mate 10, but we expect it to launch with a new version of Emotion UI that's based on Android 8 Oreo software.

The Huawei P10 launched with Emotion UI 5.1, so it may be Emotion UI 6 that we see on the new device.

The few screenshots that you can see in the video below are meant to show how the Mate 10 allows color to come through the text on the lock screen, which you can see most prominently on the clock in the bottom left.

Huawei has said these little nuances and more will be coming on the software included with the Mate 10.

Everything rumored so far for the launch of the Huawei P11

Huawei Mate 10: what we want to see

While we wait for more rumors of the Huawei Mate 10 to heat up, we've put together some of our most wanted upgrades for the company's next phablet flagship.

1. A lower price

This is a must for the Huawei Mate 10 to be one of the best phones of 2017. Huawei has been known as a cheaper Android alternative to the likes of HTC, LG and Samsung for a number of years now, but the Mate 9 saw the company raise its prices up above what we're used to.

Hopefully Huawei will drop the price back down a little for the Huawei Mate 10 considering the $599.99 (£579, AU$999) price of the Mate 9 is pretty expensive.

2. A QHD screen

The Huawei Mate 9 was not built for virtual reality and at 1080p it doesn't have a particularly high screen resolution like the Galaxy Note 8 almost certainly will.

We'd quite like the Mate 9 to embrace a slightly higher screen resolution, so the company can make the phone Google Daydream compatible without forcing users to squint.

3. A new UI

Emotion UI for Huawei handsets is a controversial element of the phone's design. Some people love the look of Huawei's own UI overlay, but many others also hate how it looks and works.

Huawei has done a lot of work to improve it in recent years, but we hope by the time of the Mate 10 the company has slimmed down the amount of bloatware and excess apps to offer a cleaner and easier to use phone experience.

4. Water resistant design

Huawei has shown no interest in embracing water resistant designs on its previous phones, but we have our fingers crossed there will be a new design for the Huawei Mate 10.

A more durable design would be a big benefit to the Mate line of products, allowing you to dunk your phone in the bath or use it in the rain - like you can with an iPhone 7 or Samsung Galaxy S8 - without any major concerns.

5. Amazon Alexa integration

The Mate 9 now has Amazon Alexa support in the US, but we've yet to see it around the rest of the world. We hope soon Huawei will see fit to roll this out to the Mate 9 in other countries, but if not it'd be a great feature to launch on the upcoming Mate 10.